Todd, Tim and Kellan Cook love Baseball, the Seattle Mariners and trekking around the country to visit stadiums and watch games. These are their stories. #FatherSonBaseball

A Winning In-Person Mariners Season (8/17/2012)

August 17, 2012 was our final Mariners game of the season. And it was a big one! If the M’s could pull out a win, we would finish *our* Mariners season with a final record of 4-2. With a loss, our M’s record would be 3-3. Either way, it would be a vast improvement over last season’s 1-8 record.

So, before getting to the game, I should give a little background. We were in Seattle the week of August 13-17. We went to the Monday night loss to Rays and the Tuesday night win over the Rays. Wednesday, was a day game and we always planned to skip it so we could do some other fun things that the NW has to offer. We decided to head down to the Space Needle because Colleen, Tim and Kellan had never been up it.

It was August 15th. The Mariners game started while we were in the car driving downtown to the Space Needle. I checked my ESPN SportsCenter App on my phone in the car and announced to my family that “Felix is perfect through 1!”

As we waited in line at the Space Needle, I announced that Felix was perfect through 3. At the top of the Needle, I announced that Felix was still perfect through six innings, and I joked about us running down to Safeco Field to be there in case Felix stayed perfect. But it was never a serious thought.

From the top of the Space Needle, I took several pictures of Seattle…

…and of Safeco Field…

…while history was being made inside the stadium.

During the seventh inning, Tim rocked a wicked air guitar at the outdoor concert stage at the Seattle Center…

…while we were making our way into the food court for a bit of lunch.

I pretty much followed the eighth and ninth innings pitch-by-pitch on my phone and I involuntarily leapt to my feet when the final out was recorded. Then I received tons of text messages from people asking, wishing and hoping we were at the game.

It is utterly amazing that Felix tossed the first Mariners perfect game while we were in town and just a couple miles from the stadium. It would have been great to be there. But I don’t feel at all like I missed out on an opportunity. The simple fact is that I knew going into the week that we would attend only 3 of the five games the Mariners played while we were in town. And, quite frankly, the Wednesday day game was the obvious choice. I (instantly) eliminated it from contention months ago when we first set the dates for our trip. So, I had to feelings of loss or personal disappointment, but just a huge feeling a joy and happiness for Felix’s amazing accomplishment.

Way to go, Felix!!!

So, wouldn’t you know, this was the Mariners first game following Felix’s perfect game and the perfecto buzz was still in the air. People across the NW (and world) were…

…#FELIXING all over the world of social media. It was a great, festive atmosphere for our final Mariners game of the season.

We took two cars to this game with the boys (me, Tim, Kellan and my Dad) heading down early for BP and the gals (Colleen, my mom, and my aunt Barb) following about 30-45 minutes behind (the still wanted to get there on the early side because it was fleece blanket give-away night).

The Ballpark still hadn’t opened when we arrived…

…which gave Tim time to pose with Ichiro before heading inside the stadium.

When we got inside, all four of us headed out to CF and Michael Saunders…

…quickly tossed us a baseball in the SRO area right next to the batters’ eye.

Thanks, Michael!

Tim wanted NOTHING to do with the sun out there. So we headed back over to that little covered nook at the LF side of the visitors’ dugout:

Tim climbed all over the support beams for about 10 minutes before the rest of the stadium opened.

Once the whole stadium opened, we headed up the stairs to the LF seats. He headed down to the first row and Stephen Pryor quickl

Tim climbed all over the support beams for about 10 minutes before the rest of the stadium opened.

Once the whole stadium opened, we headed up the stairs to the LF seats. He headed down to the first row and Stephen Pryor quickly (within a minute of us being there) tossed us our second baseball of the day:

Thanks, Stephen!

I quickly realized something interesting. Over the last year or two, we have had baseballs tossed to us by few players who had tossed a no hitter that same season. I feel like there is one more, but the ones I can remember off the top of my head include Dallas Braden (who threw a perfect game in 2010), Johan Santana (who threw the Mets first ever no hitter earlier this season), and Felix Hernandez (who threw Tim a baseball about a week before tossing his perfect game). Well, earlier this season, the Mariners threw a 6-pither combined no hitter. After Pryor tossed us a baseball, we now have a baseball in 2012 from all 5 relief pitchers (Lucas Luetge, Brandon League, Stephen Pryor, Charlie Furbush, and Tom Wilhelmsen). The only one we missed was started Kevin Millwood.

Next we headed into foul territory where there was next to no action. But we had a nice lazy time watching some BP and pre-game pitcher warm-ups:

After a while, Tim and my dad split off and headed out to explore the stadium a bit. Eventually, they ran into an usher named “Tim C.” who was working in CF bleachers. Last season, we ran into Tim C. after our Tim had been hit in the hand by a BP foul ball. That day, Tim C. gave both Tim and Kellan a big pack of about 50 baseballs each. Tim and my dad ended up chatting with Tim C. a bit and he remembered meeting them and giving the boys the big packs of baseball cards the season before. Tim C. then told Tim that he didn’t have any cards for him today, but how about a baseball! And then he pulled a BP baseball out of his pocket and Mariners Usher handed that baseball over to Mariners Fan Tim C.

Thanks, Tim C.!

I didn’t know it at the time, but I actually saw all of this happening. While Kellan and I were still in the field level, I saw Tim and my Dad chatting up an usher in the bottom RF-side corner of the CF bleachers. Turns out that was the encounter with first class Mariners usher Tim C.

By this time, Kellan and I had headed toward home plate where I got this panorama…

…and then down the RF line during we hit the shade-sun border. After a brief foray into the sun side, we retreated and hung out on the shade side. While we were over there hanging out…

…my mom, Barb and Colleen met up with us. And Kellan jumped all over the bag of kettle corn that they were carrying.

BP ended soon after mommy arrived, and we headed…

…out to the play area…

…to meet up with Tim and my dad.

This was the height of the #Felixing craze. The Mariners were showing pictures on the TVs around the ballpark and on the big screen in CF of people #Felixing. So we decided to get a nice picture of Tim #Felixing up in the LF bleachers, and he wore the perfect shirt for the occasion:

I wanted to go up to the upper deck to take a few pictures. Colleen and Kellan joined me while Tim stayed with his grandfolks. On our way over to the escalators up to the upper deck, we got a cool picture of Kellan joining in on the Mariners 1995 playoff celebration:

When we reached the top of the escalators leading to the upper deck we were greeted by an interesting sight, people sitting in extra stadium seats that were sitting in the concourse:

I liked that. I also liked the birds, water and city views we observed from the upper deck concourse down the 3B line.

We walked to the LF foul corner, which is called the “Lookout Landing.” From the front of the landing, I took this panorama as the pitchers and catchers warmed up in LF/CF:

Then I decided I should expand my view a bit:

That is Century Link Field (home of the Seahawks and Sounders) sitting between Safeco Field and the business district of downtown Seattle.

While I was snapping panoramas, Kellan and Colleen were just chilling in the Lookout Landing Bar area:

We walked around the upper deck a bit and I got two more panoramas from section 340…

…and section 332:

We have never watched a game from the upper deck at Safeco Field, but I’d like to someday. You get some great views up there.

The other reason we were in the upper deck was that Colleen was looking for a vegetarian concession stand that she noticed on the Safeco Field food map. She thought it was around 330 or so, but it wasn’t. Luckily, I had taken a picture of the map, and realized it was actually in the field level, not the upper deck.

We took an elevator back down to the field level and found ourselves right by the vegetarian concession stand and the Mariners Hall of Fame. And wouldn’t you know, the Root Sports in-game update desk was right over there as well:

When I walked over and snapped some pictures, the cameraman hopped out and offered to take that picture of us behind the desk.

Thanks, camera guy!

Colleen decided against getting food at the vegetarian food stand so we just moseyed through the Mariners Hall of Fame and I got pictures of the plaques for the new inductees, Randy Johnson and Dan Wilson:

I also took some other not-so-random, but kinda random shots:

Top Left: I took pictures of these Griffey/Ichiro lockers last season, but what I didn’t notice then was the lovely Kingdome picture on the window behind the lockers. Beautiful!

Top Middle: There are only six official members of the Mariners Hall of Fame (Alvin Davis, Dave Niehaus, Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson and Dan Wilson. No, amazingly, Harold Reynolds is not (yet) a member, but we’ll see what we can do about that). But the Mariners Hall of Fame celebrates more than just the actual MHOF members. I took this picture because I liked seeing that the Mariners were celebrating the contributions of Mike Cameron and Omar Vizquel. I think it is very cool that the Mariners respect their former-players enough to include guys in the MHOF area even while they are still playing for other teams.

Top Right: This is the best of 3-4 pictures we got at the homerun wall. Kellan just isn’t comfortable playing *above the wall* yet. But he’ll get there.

It was getting close to game time. We reported back to our seats in the second row of section 106 (designated as Row 26):

My folks, Barb and Tim were in our seats already when we arrived. And guess what? Another usher (named Adrian) was talking to them and had given Tim another baseball!

Thanks, Usher Adrian!

And as you can see in this picture…

…, Tim had also managed to wrangle a few more baseball cards from the ushers.

Before the first pitch, there was a video tribute and a quick ceremony celebrating King Felix’s Perfect Game. I took a video of it and I’ll try to update this with the link to the video once I figure out where I saved the video. It was simple, but pretty cool.

Then it was game time. Hisashi Iwakuma was on the hill for the Mariners. Here is his first pitch:

He picked up right where Felix left off two days before. It was pretty crazy. ‘Kuma started the game with four perfect innings of his own.

Meanwhile, John Jaso put the Mariners on the board with a 2-run homer (scoring Michael Saunders who had hit a 1-out single) to put the M’s up 2-0:

The Mariners added a third run in the bottom of the second on a lead-off homerun by Miguel Olivo.

Here is one of my favorite inanimate objects to photograph in all of MLB – the Safeco Field sign/clock:

It was weird (and a little sad) to see Iwakuma wearing our beloved Ryan Rowland-Smith’s No. 18, but he was representing the number well by dominating:

Fun times were definitely being had by all:

The Mariners didn’t score in the fourth, but I did get a nice shot of Miguel Olivo collecting his second base hit of the day – a single down the LF line:

We had never sat in section 106 before. I liked it a lot. Although it is right in the RCF gap, we felt really close to the action. I took some random photos looking around from our seats:

Top Left: The Dave Niehaus statue was behind us at the top of section 105.

Top Right: The Roof was wide open, but we could see the edge of it sticking up above the RF upper deck.

Bottom Left: There is a little platform in the CF gap where groundcrew people sit during the game. Past the platform, the gap is protected by a little net.

Bottom Right: We had an excellent view of the scoreboard and video screen behind us. And, oh yeah, Usher Tim C. is up there in the CF bleachers. Although I can’t really recognize him in the photo, I think that is him below the “E” in Wells and the “A” in Fargo.

In the top of the fifth inning, I left our seats to get some pizza for the boys. I shouldn’t have done that. I apparently upset the balance of the game and Iwakuma ended up losing his perfect game bid. Sorry, Kuma!

But the boys did really enjoy the pizza. While Tim concentrated on eating and enjoying it, Kellan tried to entertain me with his pizza eating abilities:

The top of the fifth inning took forever. The Twins hit a double, a single and collected a walk en route to scoring their first run of the night.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Kellan and I headed over to section 124, where it looked like this:

The purpose of the trip was to visit my bestest buddy paul and his date:

Paul’s family has shared season tickets since the Mariners first season (1977). At the kingdome, they were in the third row behind the first base (visitors) dugout. At Safeco Field, they are in the seventh row behind the first base (Mariners) dugout. They are some incredibly sweet seats.

While over with Paul, we got a close up look at John Jaso’s…

…and Justin Smoak’s…

…back-to-back fifth inning singles. Unfortunately, they were both left stranded on base. After five innings, the Mariners led 3-1.

On our way back to the seats, I grabbed some ice cream helmets for the boys:

And I took some more random family photos:

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Mariners extended their lead to 5-1 on back-to-back doubles by Travon Robinson and Eric Thames (scoring Robinson), a sac bunt by Brendon Ryan, and an RBI single by Dustin Ackley (scoring Thames).

The final bit of scoring in the game occurred in the top of the eighth inning. Joe Mauer and Josh Willingham hit back-to-back homruns off of Stephen Pryor who was in his first inning of relief. That made the score 5-3.

Mauer’s homerun went into the batters’ eye grass. I headed over there to take a look into the batters’ eye (with no intentions of the ball still being there or someone tossing it to us). The ball was already gone when we arrived. I took a few batters’ eye pictures…

…before heading back to our seats.

Late in the game, the wave started and I got a hilarious picture of everyone doing it:

(Sorry, ma, but that picture is hilarious!)

In the ninth, it was “Closing Time” and the Mariners sent in Tom “The Bartender” Wilhelmsen to shut the place down:

Wilhelmsen had not trouble closing it out 1-2-3 on 9 pitches.

MARINERS WIN!!

MARINERS WIN!!

MARINERS WIN!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! Our season Mariners record was a beautiful 4-2.

Thanks, Mariners!

It was sad to have seen our last in-person Mariners baseball of the season, but it was a great night and we were riding high on the win.

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